Bearing the Weight of the Cross: JRS in Iraq

Since October 2014, the mission of the Society of Jesus in Iraq has been energetically taken forward by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). In 2020, a year marked by extensive political instability and the massive disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, 27,426 women, children, and men were served by complementary multi-sectoral initiatives implemented by JRS in the Ninewa, Duhok, and Erbil governorates. This figure refers to unique persons served by JRS programmes, including many who benefitted repeatedly if not on a regular basis.

The mission of the Jesuit Refugee Service is intimately connected with the mission of the Society of Jesus, namely to serve faith and promote the justice of the Reign of God, in dialogue with cultures and religions. JRS Iraq embodies the Jesuit universal apostolic preference of walking with the excluded and fulfils the mission of JRS to accompany, serve, and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. We are some 120 colleagues of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, all Iraqi except for four international staff including one Jesuit. Through its projects in Iraq, JRS seeks to uphold and restore the dignity of internally displaced persons and returnees, show compassion to the most vulnerable among them, and be a sign of hope that a shared future is possible. Current project bases for on-site and outreach interventions are in Qaraqosh (Ninewa), Sharya (Duhok), and Ankawa (Erbil). Activities include but are not limited to: 

• family visits
• education recovery and learning support programmes for children aged 4-18 years
• university diploma in Training of Trainers delivered by the University of St Joseph (USJ), Beirut
• adult education and skills training courses
• Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), also supported by the Department of Psychiatry at the USJ’s Hôtel Dieu de France Hospital—including specialised psychiatric and psychological services, provision of psychiatric and related medications and neuro-medical investigations, rehabilitation of children and youth held captive and brainwashed by ISIS, and transportation for low-income patients to and from JRS centres and/or onward to public or private hospitals
• emergency cash assistance
• distribution of food baskets, hygiene kits, and non-food items, such as winterization supplies (blankets, thick plastic sheeting for tent coverings, kerosene for stoves and heaters), rechargeable lights, dignity kits, face masks, sanitiser, and Covid-19 related medication
• legal assistance for civil documentation
• advocacy on issues of key concern, such as the over 2,700 Ezidi/Yazidi missing persons
• public awareness events and workshops on protection issues and community well-being (gender-based violence, child safeguarding, suicide risk recognition and prevention, household first aid, public hygiene, women’s health, Covid-19 vaccination, etc).

In Iraq, this work is supported by the Country Office in Erbil, an office in Baghdad, and an office in Duhok city. Until 2018, JRS Iraq carried out multi-layered integrated projects in Ankawa and Ozal City/Kasnazan in Erbil, and in the Amedi district of Duhok, in the mountainous border region with Turkey. These were wound up as thousands of displaced people returned to their areas of origin or moved elsewhere. Due to ongoing disagreements between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, the work of JRS in Iraq has many of the characteristics and complications of working in two different countries, as it were. No new development is possible without patient endurance. The mission of the Jesuits is a mission of justice and reconciliation, working so that women and men can be reconciled with God, with themselves, with each other and with God’s creation. One day, if the Spirit allows, the Jesuits may be able to return to Baghdad. In the medium term, JRS’s hopes and plans include the conflict affected areas of Mosul city and the Sinjar district.

In an inspired take on the triple colloquy in the Spiritual Exercises, Jesuit martyr Ignacio Ellacuría (d. 1989) had invited his audience to contemplate the “crucified people” and to ask:  What have I done to put you on the cross? What am I doing to bring you down? What shall I do for this people to rise from the dead? As JRS journeys with the crucified people in Iraq, we humbly bear the weight of the cross, trusting in God’s power to raise the crucified people from the dead.

Joseph Cassar SJ